Revisions have been made to incorporate the latest available data relating to merchandise trade. There were no revisions to the balance of payments series in original terms.

IRON ORE PRICES

In the merchandise trade series used to compile goods credits, the value of iron ore and concentrates increased by 32% between March and April 2010 with volumes up 2% and prices up 29%. Since the price increase impact is likely to result in a permanent change in the level of the series (at least for the duration of the new contracts), a trend break correction of $800m has been applied in April 2010 to metal ores and minerals and related aggregates. As a minimum of three months are required for a trend break correction to be accurately estimated, the size of the trend break may be revised. Therefore, users should interpret the trend estimates for recent months with caution.

CHANGES IN FORTHCOMING ISSUES

The May 2010 issue of this publication and the June quarter 2010 issue of Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia (cat. no. 5302.0) will introduce a change of treatment for the civil aircraft component. A new component 'Civil aircraft and confidentialised items' will be introduced. It will include Civil aircraft for all periods, and from July 2008 will include all commodities subject to a 'no commodity details' or 'no value details' restriction. This change will affect the statistics presented in Capital goods n.e.s. from December 2008 and Other merchandise goods for July and August 2008, but will not revise the total value of goods debits.

All civil aircraft have been confidentialised since December 2008, and therefore the components making up the 'Civil aircraft and confidentialised items' series will not be available at a lower level on a balance of payments basis.

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